Rajshahi AL leader returns 8-hrs after abduction

Local Awami League leader Kamrul Islam, who was picked up by four unidentified men from his metal shop in the city on Wednesday afternoon, returned home at night after the abductors abandoned him in a dried up wetland in Darusha of Poba upazila.

The trauma of being confined for about eight and a half hours haunts the general secretary of the city AL's ward-19 unit.

During captivity, Kamrul's captors took away his mobile phone. They even did not give him anything to eat.

Talking to The Daily Star at his home in the city's Assam Colony, the 48-year-old yesterday said he could not identify his abductors, but they seemed to be law enforcers.

According to Kamrul, he was in his shop around 2:30pm on Wednesday when two men called him to talk with them. As he walked forward, the two took him near an olive microbus with tinted windows where two others were sitting.

All of a sudden, one of them blindfolded him with a cloth and two others pushed him into the vehicle. Soon they tied his hands behind his back.

“I enquired them who they were and what they wanted. As I tried to get off, someone punched me in the face twice and asked me to keep mum,” said Kamrul.

The microbus ran for around an hour before stopping at an unknown place. Kamrul was made to sit there for several hours. Nobody talked to him, but he overheard some people whispering nearby.

“No, he is not the right person. You have picked up a wrong man,” he listened in to conversations.

“Keep him here till night. A decision cannot be made in the daytime. We will decide at night,” Kamrul heard another saying.

Later, he was taken in a vehicle which ran for a few hours. When the vehicle stopped, the abductors took him nearby and untied his hands. They threatened to shot him dead if he moved.

Hearing the vehicle speed away, the AL leader took off his blindfold.

“I felt the chill of the night. I was in a dried up wetland. I ran some 300 yards towards a place where there were some lights,” said Kamrul.

He took some snacks from a shop. Locals told him that he was in Darusha of Poba upazila.

He walked to a nearby market and returned home around 11:00pm by a CNG-run auto-rickshaw. The journey home took him around two and a half hours.

Shahadat Hossain, officer-in-charge of Boalia Police Station, said he filed a general diary with the police station over Kamrul's abduction.

The victim, however, said he would not pursue legal action against the abductors as he returned home safe.

Dablu Sarkar, general secretary of Rajshahi city AL, said law enforcers might have picked up Kamrul over the theft of a motorcycle.

Lt Col Mahbubul Alam, director of Rapid Action Battalion-5, said the Rab was investigating into some incidents of motorcycle thefts in the city, but the force did not detain the AL leader.

“We deployed four teams to trace Kamrul after he was reportedly picked up by some unidentified men,” the Rab official added.